This invention relates to the field of optical assemblies, and more particularly to an optical assembly with a folding mirror assembly for magnifying objects which is both light weight and precise.
Magnifying optical assemblies are old in the art. They consist of many different shapes and forms, most commonly, telescopes, binoculars, microscopes and magnifying glasses. Magnifying optical assemblies in general have the essential property of causing incident light beams emitted from an object to be passed through the optical assembly such that the image appears closer to the viewer, and therefore, magnified.
These prior art optical assemblies, although able to achieve many multiples of magnification, are limited in their ability to achieve large magnification along with high precision in a light weight structure. Specifically, the prior art optical assemblies which are able to achieve high magnification and high precision are usually large and heavy, while those assemblies which are, in fact, light weight, do not achieve high magnification and/or precision.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide an optical assembly that provides high magnification, high precision and is still light weight for ease of use.